Monthly Archives: March 2014

By Elise Moser Columbia, MO– Social media has the opportunity to give scientists new ways to connect online, if only they would use it. That was the message of science and social media expert Liz Neeley* made on Saturday, March 15 at the MU Life Sciences and Society Symposium. Neeley, of COMPASS, addressed conventional academic thinking…

By Rebecca Dell DENVER — She’s told the story before, and Jacqui Banaszynski, a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and Poynter Institute, will no doubt tell it again: Back when Ann Bancroft (the explorer, not the actress) dogsledded to the North Pole on an otherwise all-male expedition, Banaszynski, then a reporter writing a profile on…

By Caleb O’Brien COLUMBIA, Mo. — It was a warm, crystalline day in Garfield County, Colo., in September 2010. Susan Nagel stood in a stream with an amber glass bottle clutched in her hand. She bent and plunged the empty vessel below the water’s surface. Twice she filled the bottle, and twice she turned and…

By Jack Suntrup VAN BUREN, Mo.—The hills surrounding town have begun a quiet thaw. It won’t be long before caravans of families and partiers will roll through for weekends on the rivers. Horses and revelers will slosh through the water; motorboats will speed through it; government will try to manage it. There’s no stretch of the…

Photo courtesy of Pattie Quackenbush By Mitch Ryals COLUMBIA, Mo. — Soil is alive. It moves and changes below our feet without a second thought or a thank you from above. Yet soil health and composition has a huge impact on our lives. It affects the food that grows in the ground. It affects forests, which…

By Elise Moser WILLIAMSBURG, Mo.– Every spring, as the weather warms up and spring rolls in, Jones invites schoolchildren to the Prairie Fork Conservation Area to spend a little time outdoors. That’s Pat Jones’ biggest goal. On the farm-turned-conservation area, there are rules. Everyone who comes to Prairie Fork is required to do three things:…

BY CHRISTINE COESTER ELDON, Mo. — Over the course of a lifetime, Ben Duffield and his family drove past the Eldon airport wetland. He remembers seeing the property attacked with heavy equipment and machinery. “Attacks,” meant to drain the land of water. It was not until 2005 though, when the now 66-year-old became obsessed with the…